Concerns with Men's Academic Motivation in Higher Education: An Exploratory Investigation of the Role of Masculinity

The gender gap in higher education is not a new phenomenon. Since the 1970s, researchers have been exploring the subtle and not so subtle ways in which sex and gender play a role in multiple aspects of higher education, including students' (a) completed applications, (b) actual enrollment, (c) overall success and (d) completion of a college degree (Adebayo, 2008; Duffy & Sedlacek, 2007; Ehrmann, & Massey, 2007; Harris

III & Harper, 2008; Hughes, Karp, Fermin, & Bailey, 2005; Sax, 2008). What has changed is the focus of that gap. In the past, researchers primarily focused on the ways in which women were not achieving equal access to higher education. A recent focus in the last twenty years has been on understanding the disproportionately lower representation and motivation of men. Typically, this research has examined this issue by dividing sex into two binary categories (men and women) although research is beginning to examine how gender constructs can play a role regardless of one's socially ascribed sex (Smiler, 2006).

These findings have led some researchers to assume that men have shared and specific needs based on "being men" that perhaps are not met in college classrooms. These needs reflect stereotypic assumptions about men's nature such as the need for movement, activity, and competitiveness.

Pre-college programs have been created to address this concern. …

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